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This set of bagpipes was offered for sale in Australia as a set of "old Glen bagpipe". By the time
they arrived in North America they were up on Ebay as "Donald MacDonald bagpipes". They were sent to
a maker for restoration, who called me in for an opinion. Here's what I found:
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The measurements throughout are “correct” in a general sense. The bagpipes were meant to play. I don’t
have internal measurements of Donald MacDonald bagpipe (on the way) however the outside dimensions do
not say Donald MacDonald. For instance, we know that Donald made his bass in three different lengths.
This bass has equal lengths. Also Donald’s bass bell was huge. This bass bell is “normal”.
The
two tenors were made by the same person, however they are different.
The tenor bottoms are
ebony, uniformly made, and in pretty good condition. The ivory is “friction” fitted. The internal bores
are about .330 and the length is 9 inches. The beading and combing is consistent as noted in my earlier
email. The bells are completely different internally, as you can see in the picture. The “odd” bell
is 1.250 deep where the “normal” bell is 1 inch deep. The through-bore is .495. Tuning chamber bores
are .630 and just over 3 inches deep.
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The “normal” bell had a Glen-style bushing however I’m inclined to say that the bushing and ring were
retro-fitted possibly because the original ivory cap was lost or destroyed. The glue used was still
soft and not at all like the hide or fish glue that would have been used during original manufacture.
Also the bushing and ring are made of different material that the rest of the fittings on this bagpipe.
The tenor stocks match and are in reasonably good shape. There is some surface cracking however
they do not appear to extend through to the inside bores.
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The tenor stocks match and are in reasonably good shape. There is some surface cracking however they
do not appear to extend through to the inside bores. I’ll provide pictures in a later email.
Here’s
the bass bottom and a dandy bass bottom it is. It appears to be cocuswood that has been stained black.
The beads and combs all appear to be hand-cut using a single tooth cutting tool (scribe). The combing
on the pin is also “chased” and is a thread rather than combing as on the other pins. This section does
not belong to this bagpipe and was probably a replacement.
There has been considerable hacking
on the bass mid-section.
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The blowpipe and one stock were delrin.
So here we go…
1) Bass top – cracked
– repair if possible. Otherwise it will have to be replaced.
2) Bass mid – must be replaced
3) Bass bottom – must be replaced
4) Tenors – one top needs to be rebuilt and it also
needs a new ivory cap
5) Stocks for drones are all good
6) Blowpipe stock – must be
replaced plus new ivory ferrule
7) Chanter stock – must be replaced (use existing ivory ferrule)
8) Blowpipe – must be replaced with new ivory projecting mount
Ivory caps on bass and tenor
are both cracked however I’d keep them. Other ferrules and mounts are good other than as noted above.
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